"Arrested Development" may have gotten the trick of coming to the big screen just right by inking a deal to come back to the small screen first.

A fourth "season" of the underappreciated series will pave the way for an "Arrested" movie.

The trick might help the show avoid the traps of translation attempts.

Fans often come away from TV-movies disappointed by a feature film's inability to capture their favorite show's essence. The pace, nuances and humor of a half-hour show often peter out when pushed to the 90-minute mark.

(One entity going the other way, fyi? Syfy just announced it'll develop a series based on the Matt Damon movie "The Adjustment Bureau." But movies-turned-TV is a story for another day...)

"The Brady Bunch" should have quit while they were ahead. "A Very Brady Sequel," the second of two movies based on the popular sitcom, came out in 1996 and included a magic mushroom trip as well as a love story between Marcia and Greg.

Though "Starsky and Hutch" had a relatively short run in the 1970s, it had devoted fans. The 2004 movie -- not so much. It's mostly regarded as the forgotten work of comedy greats Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn.

"Dukes of Hazzard" was number one at the box office the weekend it opened in 2005, but that was probably mostly thanks to Jessica Simpson's near-nakedness. Roger Ebert called it a "lame-brained, outdated wheeze."

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